Heyneke Meyer
The Springboks put in a powerful performance full of passion and pride to beat a game England 31-28 in front of a packed Twickenham stadium in London.
In doing so the Boks restored some pride after their Dublin ambush and continued their dominance over England in a run that now stretches 12 matches and back to 2006.
And while the scoreline eventually talked about a close match, the Boks were much more dominant than it suggests, and frustratingly let England into the game at crucial times when they should have put them away.
In the end, a crucial yellow card to lock Victor Matfield – inconsistent from referee Steve Walsh given the rest of his rulings in the game – swept England back into the game when they were staring down the barrel at 20-6 down.
For a brief five-minute period, down to 14 men, the Boks were unable to cope with England`s driving maul and conceded two tries, even though the second one came from a shocking error from the touch judge, who gave the English a line-out when it should have gone to the Boks.
sarugby
Walsh`s refusal to go upstairs when captain Jean de Villiers quizzed him on it was a crucial part of the game, as England set up a beautiful rolling maul that ended with Ben Morgan crashing over the line to add to David Wilson`s similar score three minutes earlier, and so bring the home team level.
But apart from that brief failure when Matfield was off the field, the Bok defence was superb. The amount of work put in to ensure this – particularly by Eben Etzebeth, Adriaan Strauss, Marcel Coetzee, Schalk Burger and Jan Serfontein – was a massive improvement from the performance last week.
It wasn`t a performance without blemishes though, as the Boks’ discipline was at times poor, and they gave away easy penalties within striking distance that kept England in the game.
But for all England`s passion, their firepower was snuffed out by a Bok team that was simply more clinical when it mattered most.
The Boks were aided by their composure and at times, England’s lack of it, as a suicide run by Owen Farrell, who had a poor afternoon by his own standards, allowed the Boks to open the scoring through Pat Lambie’s boot.
Pressure is a funny thing and it was a poor mistake by Danny Care as Jan Serfontein read his pass perfectly to intercept it for one of the easiest tries the midfielder has scored in his short international career thus far.
Leading 10-0, the Boks had very little territory or possession in the half, and it showed as Farrell clawed them back to 13-6 with two penalties before the break.
The Boks started exceptionally well in the second half, with a beautiful chip by Lambie landing perfectly for Willie Le Roux, who drew the last two defenders before back flipping the ball to Cobus Reinach to get his first try in international rugby in his first full start.
Just after that Matfield got his yellow, and England surged back into the game. But the Boks answered in perfect fashion as they hunkered down, drove forward and gave the English some of their own medicine as Burger went over in the corner to re-establish the lead.
A moment of madness from cheap-shot merchant Dylan Hartley cost his team as he trampled on Duane Vermeulen’s knee and earned himself a yellow in the process. Shortly afterwards Lambie sunk another penalty to extend the lead to eight points but it was seconds before the Boks gave away an easy penalty from the kickoff to make it a five-point game once again.
Despite being heavily penalised in the final few minutes of the game, Lambie’s cool head was decisive as he lined up a simple drop kick four minutes from time, a strike which was eventually to secure the victory.
It was beautiful in its simplicity, telling in the clinical nature and ultimately a strike that Lambie is fast becoming known for as he continues to grow in stature.
England scored a late try through Brad Barritt to make the scoreline look close, but in reality the Boks were always the stronger side and deserved their victory, condemning England to their fifth straight defeat under Stuart Lancaster.
Willie Le Roux almost scored with the last move of the game, and while he was adjudged to have knocked on before he touched down, it reminded those watching just how much the Boks have grown under coach Heyneke Meyer, especially as they could simply have kicked the ball out to win the match.
Scorers:
England 28
- Tries: David Wilson (1), Ben Morgan (1), Brad Barritt (1)
- Conversions: Owen Farrell (2)
- Penalties: Owen Farrell (2), Gerorge Ford (1)
South Africa 31
- Tries: Jan Serfontein (1), Cobus Reinach (1), Schalk Burger (1)
- Conversions: Patrick Lambie (2)
- Penalties: Patrick Lambie (3)
- Drop Goal: Patrick Lambie (1)
Well done Bokke!
A very ententaining game
an english defeat is always entertaining for a French but this one was a good one
England came back from nowhere at some point but the boks never panicked
Still England has always difficulties when they are not dominant upfront (re France England early in this year)
and their 9/10 combination is clearly not used to it
Both full backs were great especially your French Le Roux….
Difficult to judge the english pack though as they are very dependant on Dan Cole at scrumage and Launchbury is not a bad player at all…
World cup may well be decided by injuries
Your retirement house still in good shape
As clooney says
a Burger what else
2 @ rebop75:
Good morning rebop75, remember there are a lot of English players injured and some that could add value that were not selected. Then again the Springboks are in a similar position, so both these teams could be stronger come World Cup time. Between now and then there will have to be some clever playing time management done by all the teams, the game just claims too many injuries and with so many games players can also be played into the ground.
I was wondering if you could say how Max Evans (Scottish wing) has been doing in French rugby this year please, was surprised he isn’t in the Scotland squad at the moment.
I see Tony Jantjies has been recruited by EP, wish Tony all the best and hope that he gets regular game time and his game gets better and better as a result. It was mentioned by someone last week on the announcement of the Bulls Super rugby training squad that his name was missing from that list.
Bullscot wrote:
Unfortunatly for him Max evans has proven soluble into French rugby
in 3 years had had only a couple of good games
does not even play on a regular basis at castres
and with sivivatu coming back from injuries
I guess he will be on the market quite soon
A pity for such a nice player
I think I remember he had some injuries
not sure he is at 100%
but he is no more the promising center/wing he was at his debut
with gray and beattie playing at castres no chance for vern cotter not to watch him
barometer of his form will be his presence in the squad
@ Bullscot:
Your Jocks did very well at the Weekend BullyJock.
The International Pack is levelling out.
This bodes well for the upcoming RWC.
😉
@ rebop75:
Congratulations on your Tricolors win over OZ.
6 @ cane:
Hi cane thanks a lot, was really pleased in the end bar some silly mistakes. Your fellow countryman Mr Cotter seems to be taking the team in the right direction combined with the emergence of some good young Scottish players. Will be back in a bit to ask your opinion on some New Zealanders who have been rumoured to be heading our way sometime if you don’t mind, must dash for now,
@ cane:
The first player would like your opinion on is Hugh Blake – Otago flanker, do you rate him? Actually this one is not rumour but something already reported in NZ as a fact apparently he should arrive to play for Edinburgh soon. 22 year old who has a Scottish grandfather so he can come over and slot straight in as a local player. Reading the article on Otago news site it seems he has not made it into Highlanders Super rugby team and possibly bit frustrated there. Not far from finishing an accounting degree so would be good for Edinburgh to add to their pool, especially at loose forward where quite short due to injuries, bonus that he must be quite smart.
@ Bullscot:
Surely Josh Strauss and WP Nel(?) should soon be eligible for Scotland soon?
Wasn’t it the plan to have them available for RWC 2015?
@ Bullscot:
I suppose all Scottish eyes will be on Hampden(?) for the next 12 hours or so anyway.
The wee man Strachan seems to be reviving Scottish International football somewhat.
@ Scrumdown:
Do you have any news on the rumoured new sponsorship for the Lions that is apparently going to be announced tomorrow?
12 @ Lion4ever:
Not a thing, and no invites from the GLRU to any media “scrums”.
@ Scrumdown:
Thanks. There is a huge rumour doing the rounds that the new sponsor will be announced tomorrow and some generous amounts being bandied about.
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